Chapter 83: The Truth Behind the Cross
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Unprompted, Benjamin went to the army base with his maid after breakfast.
After so many sessions, the military training finally became a routine for him. Benjamin even got himself a special mission today - he intended to learn more about the ‘surveillance cross’ from the recruits of the same base. So it was impossible for him to refuse the training.
He arrived at the gunfire training grounds.
After a few hours of hard work, Dean announced a break and the formation broke. Everyone found a spot to sit, and Benjamin finally got his chance to speak.
He sat beside a recruit that he was quite familiar with, massaged his own shoulders as he pretended to be casual when he asked, "Mark, have you heard? The Pope finally appeared yesterday."
Recruit Mark suddenly wore an unnatural expression. He took a glance at Benjamin, turned his head away, sprung to his feet, then walked away in silence to another spot before he sat again. He totally ignored Benjamin.
"...."
Benjamin was dumbfounded.
What was on here?
They were talking fine yesterday; why did he suddenly become mute today?
He proceeded to sit beside another recruit that he once had a conversation with. "Ian, what’s going on? Did Mark get off the wrong side of his bed? He looks pissed!"
Recruit Ian looked at Benjamin as if the former saw a ghost. Then, Ian ran away from Benjamin as if Benjamin was a plague.
"...."
Benjamin instinctively exhaled into his palm and sniffed his breath. No, he did not stink - he did brush his teeth this morning. Why then would these people despise him?
What even happened here?
If it was because they did not have the guts to discuss anything about the church, then it would be unnecessary for Recruit Ian to run away. Benjamin only asked about Mark’s long face.
He had no idea what was going on in their minds.
Benjamin was sitting alone and puzzling over the unfriendly attitude of the recruits while also worrying on how to get information from the camp today when he heard a voice from behind him.
"They did not dare to speak to you because they thought you had the cross on you. The cross was tailor-made by the church, and they were afraid that the Pope would know that they were being lazy and resting. That was why they avoided you like the plague."
Benjamin turned and saw Coach Dean standing behind him with his arms crossed.
This coach really had a thing for standing behind people. However, Benjamin was neither shocked nor scared by Coach Dean’s sudden appearance. Instead, he was relieved; finally someone that could answer his questions!
"Are you not afraid, then?" Benjamin asked after having some thoughts.
Dean shrugged, "Why should I be afraid? You don’t have the surveillance cross on you. The Pope will never know a thing even if I start screaming like a banshee here."
Benjamin could not help but chuckle, "Huh, looks like you’re quite familiar with the events yesterday."
The Kingdom’s Army belonged to the royals, and received orders from the church. As a Coach in the Kingdom’s Army, Dean must know quite a lot.
"I’m not only familiar with it," Dean snorted with pride as Benjamin expected, "I heard from the Coach in the Knight’s Battalion right beside us that a noble brat left the place before the Pope appeared. He tried to stop the brat, but he was shouted at instead. He was so furious that he woke everyone in the Knight’s Battalion yesterday in the middle of the night and ordered them to run through the night. I would make a modest guess that it was you. Am I right?"
After he heard this, Benjamin looked at the Knights Battalion beside their camp in shock.
What a coincidence!
No wonder the shouts he heard from them were much weaker today.
Still, it was amazing that the few Royal Knights that stopped him yesterday was here in the Kingdom Army, training the recruits. Fate really could work in mysterious ways.
If the knight knew that Benjamin was here, he would probably rush over and teach him a hard lesson.
Benjamin was helpless in this; on the streets, he was a highly noble while a Royal Knight was just a lowly knight. However, in the training base, Benjamin was a mere recruit while the knight was a high-rank officer! The environment could really play a decisive role in one’s status.
When Benjamin realised this, he promptly started to flatter Dean, "Oh, coach! You’re such a stunningly handsome man!"
Dean roared in laughter.
He shook his head as he comforted Benjamin, "Alright alright, enough. I will not inform him that you’re here. What are you afraid of, anyways? You’re my recruit; he had no jurisdiction to teach you a lesson."
"Yes yes yes, sir, whatever you say is absolutely true."
Dean shook his head again, his lips pulled up into a smile.
"Oh, right," Benjamin finally asked the question that had been bothering him after cracking enough jokes and when the atmosphere finally brightened, "How did you find out that I do not have those crosses on me?"
Dean snorted, his tone filled with pride, "That’s easy. The crosses are embedded into the flesh of the palm using the Divine Arts; it could not be removed, nor could it be hidden. I specifically checked that during the training, and there was nothing in your palm. You must’ve somehow escaped it."
Benjamin raised his brows in shock.
Embedded in the flesh.... It was that gory? Benjamin felt a sympathetic pain in his palm just by listening to the procedure. He never imagined that the ‘wearing the cross’ described by Jeremy was ‘worn’ this way. How did the nobles withstand the agony? How did they not rebel right then and there?
Apparently, the incident last night was more complicated than what he expected. In the next second, Benjamin’s thoughts went to Grant.
What happened to Grant, then? Benjamin was not blind - he would have definitely noticed a cross embedded in his younger brother’s palm during breakfast.
There was no doubt that Grant did not ‘wear’ the surveillance cross too.
Why?
The answer could not be because ‘Grant was hiding in the store room committing homosexual behavior’. That was too far-fetched for Benjamin to believe although this was a fantasy world. There must be another explanation.
"My brother was also at the party. He did not have a cross in his palm though," Benjamin told Dean without hesitation. He was not worried about Dean getting suspicious; everyone in the kingdom was terrified now, and all of them were trying to know as much as they could about the situation. It would be more suspicious of him if he looked like he did not care about what was happening.
"Bullshit. Don’t you know who your brother is?" Dean scoffed, "The cross has no effect on casters of the Divine Arts, much less on your brother, who is the famed next-in-line of the Pope. There was no need for the church to put him on surveillance!"
Benjamin nodded, "Ah, that’s the reason huh...."
The surveillance cross could only work on ordinary people. This piece of information could be crucial. Speaking of Dean’s comment, ‘There was no need for the church to put him on surveillance!’, Benjamin wanted to silently comment that yes, the church should really get to know what Grant was up to in his free time.
Jokes aside, if Benjamin did not get out of the ball in time, he would get the cross implant. As he was a mage, the cross would fail, and his identity would have been revealed to the Pope instantly. Just thinking of it gave Benjamin cold sweat.
Thank God he escaped in the nick of time.
"You nobles must be running amok now; all your dirty secrets are there for the church to see," Dean continued as Benjamin was still silently thankful for his luck, "Now tell me, when will you people start a riot right at the doors of the church?"
Benjamin could only laugh dryly. After Dean provided him some information, it was now time for him to return the favour. Fair enough, but unfortunately, he had nothing to give.
"I have no idea," Benjamin shook his head, "Neither my brother or I got the surveillance cross. We are the only two noble youths in the family, and since this incident did not impact our family, we’re basically ignoring it. Even if these people wanted to stage protest against the church, they wouldn’t come after us."
The Lithur household was indeed very fortunate in this. Dean could do nothing but smile and pat Benjamin on his shoulder.
"You sly punk. You got all the advantages to yourself, huh!" Dean turned and left as he shook his head, as if he stopped thinking of new questions. Even if he did have more, it was probably inappropriate for him to ask Benjamin about them.
Break time was finally over. Dean stalked towards the centre of the training ground and yelled, "Break’s over, stand up! Mark, I’m talking about you! What are you laughing about? Down you go and give me 200 push ups! Don’t even dream of lunch if you do not complete it."
Everyone gathered swiftly in formation as Dean continued his shouting. All of them bit their lips and held in their laughter. They looked at a dismayed Mark with schadenfreude.